Fear of crime amongst older persons has been fairly widely researched in Western societies. Most studies have noted that, despite being at generally lower risk of becoming victims of crime, older persons often exhibit higher levels of fear of crime than other age groups. However, there have been very few studies on subjective interpretation of fear amongst older persons in Asian cities and Chinese societies.

Existing studies have utilized quantitative methods to examine possibly causal relationships between fear of crime and its underlying factors but subjective evaluations by older people themselves of factors related to the fear of crime are almost nonexistent. This study aimed to fill a number of gaps by investigating factors related to fear of crime by exploring older persons’ perspectives of their living environments and situations in Hong Kong, a predominantly Chinese, and ageing, society (Chan, 2008).

Objectives and method

The study had two main objectives :

• to identify and investigate which physical and social aspects of the living environment affect the level of fear of crime among older persons and,
• to explore older people’s subjective evaluations of these factors.

A qualitative research design was used to try to understand how and why fear arises in spite of considerable objective evidence that older persons in Hong Kong, as elsewhere, are at relatively low risk of becoming victims of crime. The study employed eight focus group discussions (FGDs) and two individual in-depth interviews involving 48 people in total. To provide a range of typical Hong Kong residential environments, participants aged 65 or older were drawn from two main categories of housing (traditional village-type housing and high-rise housing) drawn from four different types of physical living environments in Hong Kong (a village, an island, old-town housing, and new towns). All data were transcribed, coded and analysed using a grounded theory approach.

Findings

Environmental factors

Environmental factors, individual factors and moderators of fear of crime were identified. It appears that socio-environmental factors can be categorized into three dimensions (Fig.1), vulnerability ( defects of the living environment) , defensibility ( levels of protection provided by the environment) and supportability ( availability of social support that older persons can obtain when they are at risk) . According to most respondents, vulnerability appears to be positively associated with fear of crime, but defensibility and supportability appear to be negatively associated with fear of crime.

Vulnerability

The concept of vulnerability in this study refers to various defects in the living environment that are perceived as threatening by older persons. These environmental defects include both physical and social aspects . Defects in the physical environment are the weaknesses in a particular physical setting, facilities or environment, which may provide an opportunity for an offender to commit a crime. For example, pipes outside respondents’ buildings may serve as scaling ladders for offenders to enter the household.

In older crowded areas, increasing numbers of households in a building were felt to reduce respondents’ familiarity with those in their immediate environments, which may provide a better opportunity for an offender to commit a crime. Respondents identified factors related to perceived vulnerability in their social environment such as a history of crime in the community, income levels, and known villains living in the community.

In terms of the crime history in the community, it was found that once criminal cases appear in their locality, older persons often experience an increased level of fear because it means that the criminal selected their community to victimize. Consequently, people living in such communities may feel at greater risk of becoming victims of crime. Therefore, with a previous history of crimes in a given community, the perceived vulnerability as well as fear of crime increases. In this sense, we detected fear breeding fear, as older people talked to each other of criminal events that may well never affect them.

Defensibility

Another environmental factor related to fear of crime among our older respondents was defensibility. Defensibility is seen as the level of protection provided by the physical and social environments, which helps reduce older persons’ fear of crime. Unlike vulnerability, defensibility is mainly focused on prevention of crime. As such, older people seek protective strategies to reduce their perceived vulnerability in different environments. Defensibility can also be divided into two categories, physical and social, in which the physical dimension stresses physical security devices such as closed circuit television and window grilles, and locks, while the social dimension includes the availability of authority figures that can effectively prevent crime, such as police and security guards, who are very popular in many high-rise estates. It was found that better defensibility leads to reduction in perceived fear of crime.

Supportability

The third factor concerns availability of support for those faced with risk of victimisation or coping with past victimisation. Unlike defensibility, the supportability perspective is a social one. Interestingly, it does not necessarily require an authority figure to be the source of support. The police and security guards are powerful sources to support older persons when they face an actual threat, but neighbours, friends, or even strangers on the street can also play an important role in supporting older persons. It was found that supportability is negatively associated with the level of fear of crime.

Individual factors

Individual factors were also found to be related to fear of crime among older persons. Finding suggests that fear of crime is related to older persons’ perception of vulnerability, defined as ‘a belief that one is susceptible to future negative outcomes and unprotected from danger or misfortune’ (Perloff, 1983, p.43). This term refers to the vulnerability model which suggests that demographic characteristics relate to fear of crime. Our study suggested that physical vulnerability (e.g. physical health and frailty, distractions shopping in crowded market places), social vulnerability (e.g. educational level), as well as cognitive-behavioural vulnerability (e.g. personal disclosure, health and family caring attitude and lacking of communication with family or support networks) are positively related to their level of fear of crime. However, two others factors, namely personal wealth and lifestyle, helped older persons to reduce their sense of vulnerability.

Moderators of fear of crime

Moderators of fear of crime were identified, involving ways in which cognitive and behavioural adjustment by older persons could moderate fear of crime. Cognitive adjustment includes four beliefs, some of which appear culturally based. First, respondents who perceived themselves to have sufficient understanding of crime in their living environment showed low level of fear of crime. This information helped them to avoid ‘high risk’ areas and avoid becoming victims.

Secondly, some respondents attributed the success of street scams and confidence tricks involving older people to the criminals’ use of psychedelic substances to drug their victims. This helped respondents explain why victims would act ‘irrationally’ but more importantly enabled older persons to formulate their strategies in dealing with possible scammers. Consequently, older persons reduced their level of fear because they knew how to tackle the problem and would be less likely to be victims of crime.

Thirdly, some respondents think that victimisation is determined by luck (fate). Whether a person will become a target of a criminal is related to their fate and not their personal efforts alone. The formation of this belief may be due to the uncertainties related to crime, which include the uncertainty of time, venue, and offender. Finally, some respondents rationalized criminal victimization as a result of people’s greedy personalities. Therefore, some respondents felt that risk can be reduced if people reduce their avarice.

Respondents adopted assorted actions to reduce their level of fear of crime. For example, a popular response was for respondents to add extra security facilities to their homes to increase their sense of defensibility. Some tried to keep close ties with their community and established good relations with neighbours so as to enhance their supportability. Avoidance behaviour was also used, avoiding places which may increase levels of fear of crime and, in the extreme, some respondents minimising going out at all.

Conclusion

This study, like any research project has a number of limitations, both in methods and results. Nonetheless, this research has some conceptual and practical outcomes. It investigated four different types of living environment in Hong Kong including an island settlement, old town, new town and village areas, all with distinct environmental characteristics. Therefore, the study allows us to understand a range of physical features in living environments that have potential impact on residents. Second, this research develops the vulnerability model, providing a new dimension in explaining people’s vulnerability by incorporating cognitive-behavioural factors. Finally, the study also points out various adjustment methods adopted by older persons to ameliorate or cope with their levels of fear of crime. People can mediate their fear of crime by their own beliefs and actions (Angew, 1985). Consistent with this idea, this research has successfully identified aspects of cognitive-behavioural adjustment among older persons in strategies to reduce their levels of fear of crime.

Purely objectively, in spite of occasional reports in the local media, older residents are very safe in Hong Kong. It is a densely settled city but effectively policed. However, the fear of crime remains and a number of social and other policy strategies to assist older citizens may be deployed, based on these types of findings.

References

Agnew, R.S. (1985) Neutralising the impact of crime. Criminal Justice and Behaviour, 12, p.221-239

Chan, On-Fung (2008) Fear of crime among older persons: an exploratory qualitative study in different environments in Hong Kong. Unpubl. MPhil Thesis, Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

Perloff, L.S. (1983) Perceptions of vulnerability to victimization. Journal of Social Issues, 39(2), p.41-61